Speaker: Dr Kris Marsh, Department of Sociology, University of Maryland
Chair: Dr Ali Meghji, Associate Professor in Social Inequalities
Abstract:
Drawing from stratification economics, intersectionality. respectability politics, The Love Jones Cohort centers on the voices and lifestyles of members of the Black middle class who are single and living alone (SALA).
While much has been written about both the Black middle class and the rise of singlehood, this book represents a first foray into bridging these two concepts. In studying these intersections, The Love Jones Cohort provides a more nuanced understanding of how race, gender, class, coupled with social structures, shape five central lifestyle factors of Black middle class adults who are SALA.
The book explores how these Black adults define family and friends and decide on whether and how to pursue romantic relationships, articulate the ebbs and flows of being Black and middle class, select where to live and why, accumulate and disseminate wealth, maintain overall health, well-being and coping mechanisms.
Speaker:
Dr Kris Marsh is a professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Maryland. Dr Marsh teaches courses on Research Methods, Critical Race Theory, Racial Residential Segregation, and Intersectionality.
Dr Marsh’s areas of expertise are the Black middle class, demography, racial residential segregation, and education. She has combined these interests to develop a research agenda that is divided into two broad areas: avenues into the Black middle class and consequences of being in the Black middle class.
As a sociologist and demographer Dr Marsh has contributed to the media, both television and the press. Dr Marsh served as the Secretary of the District of Columbia Sociological Society and the Managing Editor of Issues in Race & Society
Since 2015, Dr. Marsh has been the driving force behind an implicit bias training with various police departments.
Dr. Marsh was awarded the Jacquelyn Johnson Jackson Early Career Award from the Association of Black Sociologists in 2015 and received the Core Fulbright U.S. Scholar award for 2017. Dr. Marsh was elected Chair of the Section on Race, Gender, and Class of the American Sociological Association in 2019.
Dr. Marsh is working on a book that interrogates navigating racism, sexism, and classism among Black golfers and is collaborating on a study that centers the voices and experiences of partners and wives of retired players from the National Football League.
Access information: The seminar room is accessed via two short flights of steps and a lift. Please contact enquiries@sociology.cam.ac.uk ahead of seminars to arrange access.
